rs are
horrible. Bananas, oranges, and coffee are the best native productions
on the table.

[Illustration: Fruit Peddlers.]

The population of Para is thirty-five thousand, or double what it was
when Wallace and Bates entered it twenty years ago. It is the largest
city on the largest river in the world, and the capital of a province
ten times the size of New York State. The enterprising, wealthy class
consists of Portuguese and pure Brazilians, with a few English, Germans,
French, and North Americans. The multitude is an amalgamation of
Portuguese, Indian, and Negro. The diversity of races, and the mingled
dialects of the Amazon and Europe, make an attractive street scene. Side
by side we see the corpulent Brazilian planter, the swarthy Portuguese
trader, the merry Negro porter, and the apathetic Indian boatman. Some
of the more recent offspring are dressed _a la Adam_ before the fall;
numbers wear only a shirt or skirt; the negro girls who go about the
streets with trays of sweetmeats on their heads are loosely yet prettily
dressed in pure white, with massive gilded chains and earrings; but the
middle and upper classes generally follow Paris fashions. The mechanic
arts are in the hands of free Negroes and Indians, mulattoes and
mamelucos.[144] Commerce is carried on almost exclusively by Portuguese
and other foreigners. Dry-goods come chiefly from England and France;
groceries from Portugal; flour and hardware from the United States. The
principal exports are rubber, cacao, coffee,[145] sugar, cotton, Brazil
nuts, sarsaparilla, vanilla, farina, copaiba, tobacco, rum, hides, fish,
parrots, and monkeys.[146] Para exceeds in the number of its indigenous
commodities any other port in the world, but the trade at present is
insignificant when we consider the vast extent and resources of the
country. The city can never have a rival at the mouth of the Amazon, and
is destined to become a great emporium. But Brazilian legislation stands
in the way. Heavy import duties are charged--from 35 to 45 per cent.;
and on the 1st of January, 1868, it was ordered that 15 per cent. must
be paid in English gold. The consequence has been that gold has risen
from 28 to 30 above par, creating an additional tax. Exportation is
equally discouraging. There is a duty of nine per cent. to be paid at
the custom-house, and seven per cent. more at the consulado. But this
is not the sum total. Those who live outside of the province of Para,
say abov